This morning (March 22), Portugal showed everyone that without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in the squad, what can they do? It was a 5-2 victory against an opponent that every team is afraid of, Sweden.

Portugal won to “protect” Cancelo’s argument

A few days ago, everyone was excited by the somewhat tough statement of full-back Joao Cancelo about the case of his senior Ronaldo: “Ronaldo is an important player and has spent 15 years competing with Messi for fame. Golden Ball insignia. But the peak of a football player’s career is between the ages of 25 and 32. He is of course still an important player for us, but the national team is not completely dependent on him.”

People immediately criticized Cancelo as someone who does not know how to “show respect”, behaves poorly, speaks without consideration, and people also predict the “results” of the player being loaned by Man City to Barca to be the same. What if Ronaldo is upset? But as soon as he heard his junior say that, Ronaldo just “responded” by posting a photo of the whole family relaxing on a beautiful beach in Saudi Arabia.

There are two reasons to temporarily explain Ronaldo’s “behavior”. First of all, he is no longer “young” anymore to argue or get mad at that statement. He will do everything to prove that he is still very important to the national team. Second, Ronaldo clearly understands that he will no doubt play for Portugal at EURO 2024. No coach would dare to deceive Ronaldo. The day coach Roberto Martinez was appointed, he also had to praise and please Ronaldo, which is understandable. Unless he was reluctant, CR7 was automatically present in the starting lineup.

But on the day Ronaldo was having fun with his family, Portugal had an impressive practice against Sweden – an opponent that England, Germany, France, Brazil, the Netherlands or Italy do not like to face. However, the 90 minutes against Sweden showed off the terrible strength of “Europe’s Brazil”, a Portugal that is truly a strong candidate for the EURO 2024 championship.

Sweden, the team ranked 26th on the FIFA rankings and 19 places lower than Portugal, always brings a lot of trouble to opponents because of their physical strength and extremely uncomfortable playing style. But against the Nordic team, Martinez placed Goncalo Ramos in the center position, with Bernardo Silva on the right wing and Rafael Leao on the left wing. This trio, with the help of Bruno Fernandes in the role of guardian, shined one after another. Rafael Leao scored the opening goal in the 24th minute, Ramos scored in the 61st minute and Bernardo Silva assisted Matheus Nunes with a goal to increase the score to 2-0 in the 33rd minute.

Even 1994-born striker Bruma of Sporting Braga Club also impressed with a goal from an assist from Bruno Fernandes. Obviously, it is not easy to score against a team like Sweden that is famous for its tough and strong playing style. On the other hand, Portugal kicked the opponent’s net 5 times. More importantly, three strikers Leao – Bruma – Ramos all scored. Their chemistry with the surrounding satellites helps Portugal create constant pressure on the opponent’s goal. In front of the home team’s stars, Sweden’s defense was “bewildered” instead of like before, just locking Ronaldo down.

This will definitely be a “problem” for the teams that have to face Portugal in Germany next summer. The victory over Sweden also shows that Portugal has countless quality options and is strong enough to shoulder the responsibility of scoring goals when Ronaldo does not play or when he retires from the national team. That means the statement that Portugal does not necessarily need Ronaldo is correct.

Not to mention, Portugal lacks Diogo Jota – the versatile striker who plays for Liverpool but did not join the team this time due to injury. Indeed, Portugal’s attack is too rich and scary for every defense. Now they will all have to try their best to make the final list to travel to Germany this summer. As for Ronaldo, he probably has certain calculations or CR7 will think back to Cancelo’s words and remember the 2022 World Cup.

Ronaldo needs EURO 2024 to say goodbye?

At the 2022 World Cup finals, coach Fernando Santos had to talk and convince Ronaldo to sit on the bench when he realized that Portugal had to make changes in attack. In the end, Ronaldo accepted but he was not happy. It’s just that Ronaldo understands that the home team’s victory is the most important. He has been understood too well by the opponent and sitting on the bench is sometimes good. Unfortunately, in that tournament, Portugal could not go further than the quarterfinals.

With almost certainly being named in EURO 2024 in Germany, Ronaldo is facing many opportunities to break records at the No. 1 national team tournament in Europe. Specifically, CR7 will participate in EURO tournaments for the 6th time in his career. This helps the former MU star become the player with the most participation in this tournament in history.

And yet, Ronaldo is the player with the most goals in the history of this tournament. Currently, the star on Al Nassr’s staff has scored 14 goals in EURO finals so far, far ahead of the second ranked person, the legendary Michel Platini (9 goals). Not long ago, the Portuguese legend ended 2023 as the world’s top scorer (54 goals).

After all, Ronaldo is very close to the age of 40. He may have the body of a 19 or 20 year old boy, but age is still age, and sometimes it doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with physical condition. Like in the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo was stuck against Morocco’s defense and before that, he lost to South Korea in the group stage. He cannot compete or compete with the speed of young players and is ready to play fiercely. With modern tactics, all 11 players must participate in the match, even the goalkeeper will have to be part of the gameplay development. The remaining 10 people cannot serve 1 person. Everyone must be one block, press together, defend together and attack together. That will be Ronaldo’s big problem.

Ronaldo’s experience, leadership ability and scoring skills have not disappeared, but he does not necessarily have to play as a starter. Ronaldo can contribute somewhat to the home team’s play style or simply need 45 minutes to explode. That is a suitable time for an older player (or even less). Ronaldo will now have to ask himself, does he want to win the EURO championship with Portugal for the second time in history or do he want to let people ridicule and criticize him like every time this team fails in major tournaments like always? ?